Rachel Banham’s 3-pointer beats Iowa at the buzzer

Minnesota guard Rachel Banham hit a 3-pointer as time expired and put a dagger in the Iowa Hawkeyes, 78-76, Monday night at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Iowa had just enjoyed some late-game heroics when Ally Disterhoft drove to the basket to give the Hawkeyes the lead with eight seconds left.

But Banahm — who scored 60 in a game last week, and had 35 points Monday — raced upcourt and got the shot off right before the backboard turned red.

'Rachel Banham is just a special player and she is tough to guard,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said.

Iowa (15-11, 5-9 Big Ten) has now lost four in a row, and has its work cut out to keep up the program's streak of eight straight NCAA Tournament trips. Iowa hosts Purdue on Thursday and Indiana on Sunday.

Monday night the Hawkeyes led for 33 minutes, 13 seconds. Chase Coley and Megan Gustafson controlled the paint with Coley racking up 21 points and 11 rebounds and Gustafson 14 points and 19 rebounds. Disterhoft added 20 points.

'Chase and I knew we needed to rebounds to get second-chance opportunities,' Gustafson said.

Iowa led 38-28 at half.

'We did a great job holding them to 28 points in the first half,' Bluder said. 'We just couldn't keep it going.'

Minnesota (18-7, 10-4) took its first lead since the opening minutes with a 3-pointer from Banham with 7:57 left in the game. The fourth quarter had 11 lead changes and three ties before the heroics from Disterhoft and Banham.

Banham also had nine rebounds and eight assists for the Gophers. Carlie Wagner had 17 points and Minnesota shot 10-of-19 from 3-point range.

'We have four games left this year, and I honestly think we can do great things,' Bluder said. 'We were one defensive stop away from a great victory.'